Is it possible your child tastebuds were different? I ate things when I was a kid (with relish) that I find inedible now, including green apricots, natal plums, and sourgrass. Probably not the case, but I thought I'd bring it up. Renee

Okay, orange for juicing - the classic Valencia is our "juicing" orange. But, if you'd like a very delicious alternative, try the Page mandarin hybrid. Think of it as a "Minneola hybrid". It is 3/4 mandarin and 1/4 grapefruit, and it is out of this world good, especially for juicing. My favorite fruit for juicing. Or, if you're adventurous, try a blood orange, like a Moro, or the best tasting of of the blood oranges, a Tarocco (either a "Bream" or if you can find it, the best tasting of all the Tarocco's, the "Thermal"). And orange for eating out of hand would be any of the great navel varieties. You certainly can juice them, but drink the juice right away, as their juice contains a higher amount of a chemical, when exposed to air creates a second chemical that will make the juice become a little bitter. But, best eating out of hand type of orange. The classic of course is our wonderful Washington Navel. A great couple of alternatives would be the beautiful Cara Cara navel (a sport of the Washington), which is a bit sweeter, and has pretty pink flesh (lycopene), or the classic Minneola tangelo. I love my Cara Cara. Satsumas tend to grow in a more weeping fashion (very beautiful specimen trees for your yard, so maybe? a spot in your front yard to show it off), so, instead of a Satsuma (which really is not the best tasting mandarin, imho), I would suggest a Tango mandarin. More upright, and one of the very best tasting mandarins out there. Another excellent option, and the very BEST of all the mandarins (again, imho), is the Seedless Kishu. If you have small kiddos, this is the perfect mandarin for them - pint-sized, completely seedless, very zipper skin, melts in your mouth with a rich, complex, sweet flavor. Grapefruits. The best 100% grapefruit variety for us in the more coastal areas of S. California will be the Rio Red. Very pretty red flesh (lycopene, again). If you would prefer a little sweeter tasting grapefruit, I would definitely go with the Oro Blanco grapefruit hybrid (pummelo x grapefruit), or it's "sister", the Melogold (which I think is a wee bit better, sweeter, thinner skinned). And, if you really want a sweet grapefruit, the Cocktail grapefruit, which is not even a grapefruit, although marketed as such, but a pummelo x mandarin cross, and my favorite of all the "grapefruits". I believe Clausen's has all the varieties I've mentioned. But, that's a HOOF from Culver City, let me tell you. There are some great options up in your area for good nurseries: Armstrong Nurseries, and they can even special order for you. Also Burkard Nurseries in Pasadena: http://www.burkardnurseries.com/plant-lists/citrus-trees , And, Sperling Nursery in Calabasas an N. Hollywood (think they still have their N. Hollywood location): http://sperlingnursery.com/ Another option if you're in the Bakersfield area is buying directly from Willits & Newcomb. They are one of the best commercial tree growers (along with Clausen's), and they also should have all the varieties just about, that I've mentioned. Hopefully our Los Angeles area forum members can also offer up some suggestions. These options will be more expensive than either Clausen's or W&N (as they're getting their trees from folks like Clausen's or W&N), so bit of a trade off - price vs travel :-) Lastly, I would still recommend going with semi-dwarfing rootstocks. Either Troyer/Carrizo, or even C35. Your tree will top out at about 15' - still way too tall for me - but you'll be able to manage your trees much, much better than trying to get a tree that wants to be 20 or 30' down to 15'. Citrus are tip fruiting trees, so you have to be careful in how to prune them, or you can end up pruning away future fruit. You would need to be very good a drop-crotch pruning, and most folks aren't :-) Stick with semi-dwarf rootstock and you will only need to prune out dead wood every 3 to 5 years from the interior of the tree, as citrus have lovely growth habits, and semi-dwarf trees should give you the perfect height tree for your particular application. Most of the trees at the UCR Citrus Variety Collection are on semi-dwarfing rootstock, and they are huge. Patty S.

The other crops are pretty boring like number one in beets, we have a sugar industry here. 6th in peaches I guess my point any place you live is what you make it. I have an orange tree, a black peppercorn plant, cacti, and fig trees. I can grow anything I want. I have a limited season, but the plants don't know that. Peppers and tomatoes are tropical plants yet grown everywhere. Both originating from South America. I hate our winters, but we don't have poisonous spiders or snakes, no hurricanes, or earthquakes, just an occasional tornado. Cost of living is really decent here too. I own waterfront property but am middle class, hard to do in CA or FL. Everyplace has it good points and bad, it is what you make of it. I have often thought of moving but many of the things mentioned changed my mind. I'm excited this week I have all kinds of new plants coming. Spring is at last here, and after the hard winter, the roses never smelled sweeter! I have Nadia the cherry-plum hybrid tree coming. It's like a huge cherry! Developed in Australia. You couldn't grow that in FL, not enough chill hours. Two elderberries new cultivars from the Netherlands that are pruned like raspberries, making management and harvest rather simple. Two new currants, a pink, and a red one. Again cannot be grown in CA or FL due to these cultivars not taking the heat. I picked up three more blackberry plants, and a tropical fruit tree, that produces the sherbert berry. I will have to overwinter inside. This cultivar is from India. I added two plum trees Satsuma, and a weeping Santa Rosa plum. Both are very good Japanese plums. My raspberry crop is going to be huge this year, as is my strawberry and blackberry crops. I have garlic, and onions planted out already and have 15 tomatoes, and 15 pepper plants ready to be planted out. My Spice Zee nectaplum has swollen blossoms, about ready to bloom, As does my pluot tree, and Indian Free and pf-Lucky 13 peach trees. Also my Arctic Glo nectarine is loaded with fruit buds. The blueberries are going to produce a large crop, as our my currants too. Getting ready to plant beans, cucumbers, melons and watermelons. I'm growing orange, yellow and red watermelons this year. Have a good spring everybody!

I got a mixed bunch of maples when orchard supply hardware closed. I bought all the 1 gallon trees which they didn't water anymore and marked down 75 percent. My experience has been that they do need extra water, they prefer raised beds in a clay soil which mine is. They did very well in pots even with our alkaline water near Disneyland. I use part sifted soil, part peat moss, part sand, part pumice, part coarse perlite, good handfuls of charcoal (not ashes) from my fireplace and I mulched with nitrolyzed fir and redwood compost. A few times a year, I flood the soil to flush out excess salts. Every year a heatwave will burn all the leaf tips in late summer or autumn so that there is basically no fall show but the little trees are still very pretty spring and summer. I love my trees and think they are worth the extra effort. If you spend the time to train them, they can be magnificent, even in winter when they have no leaves. I would try for morning sun as a preferred location. I tried late day sun but even then with warm air Temps, delicate leaves can burn. Mid day sun is too hot unless you have a lath or other plants making shade. Wherever camellias do well is your best bet. I'd get a reasonably priced 5 gallon camellia. Try it for a year in the spot and then decide.